PSYC 1F90- Sem 2

Social Psychology

The study of how people behave in social situations. Social sychology is responsible for the best and worst things humanity has done.

Social Groups

• They are groups that help us define who we are

• They give us roles to take on, and rules to follow

• One social group we are a part of is the fact that we're Brock students

• Other social groups include your gender, race, age, religion, mental health status, etc.

Ingroups

• They are groups that you personally identify with

Outgroups

• Groups that you do not identify with

• People tend to see the negativity with groups they do not identify with

Social Roles

• Expectations for how people who hold certain positions in a group ought to behave

Social Norms

• A widely accepted standard of conduct for appropriate behavior, unspoken agreements

Flyers Experiment

• 1, 2, 4, and 8 pieces of litter on the ground

• The more litter on the ground, the more likely they were to throw their flyer on the ground

• This proves how norms are so important to shaping our behavior

• We are a social species

Social Cognition

• It is the process of thinking about ourselves and other people in social contexts

Social Comparison

• The process of evaluating our abilities, achievements, and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

Downward comparison

• Comparing yourself with a person who ranks lower than you on some dimension

• It protects our self-esteem

Upward comparison

• Comparing yourself with a person who ranks higher than you on some dimension

• It lowers our self-esteem and is motivating to do better

• It can be bad for your mental health, especially if you compare yourself to someone who is essentially out of reach

• Reasearch shows that role models are most motivating when the level of achievement they have feels attainable

• The happiest people will compare themselves to their own internal standards rather than looking to others

Attribution

• A theory describing how we assign attributions for other people's behavior

Dispositional Attribution

Explaining a persons behavior as a products of their personality

Situational Attribution

Explaining a persons behavior as being the product of their situation

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional causes, without regard for situational influences

• We tend to explain other people's behaviors by their personality more than their situation

• Humans are more dispositionalist

• The assumptions we make are not always correct

Actor Observer Bias

• The tendency to make dispositional attributions for the behaviour of others and situational attributions for our own behavior

Self-Serving Attributions

• Positive outcome for self:

○ Explain it in terms of dispositional factors

• Negative outcome for self:

○ Explain it in terms of situational factors

Self-Handicapping

• Placing obstacles in the way of your success to protect your self-esteem from possible future failure

• Like partying the night before a test

Self-justification

• We make stories to make us seem like a good person in relation to our own behavior

Cognitive dissonance theory

• The idea that people have a distaste for perceiving inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviours

• Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent

• Dissonant thoughts cause psychological discomfort

• We try to reduce dissonance by making our cognitions more compatible

Reducing dissonance

• Change behaviour —> Stop smoking

• Change the cognition —> Smoking doesn't cause cancer

• Add consonant thoughts —> Smoking reduces stress

• Changing the importance of the dissonant thoughts —> Smoking is cool

• We are skilled at psychological distortion to convince ourselves that what we do is acceptable

• We are very hypocritical as a species

Social Facilitation

• The tendency to perform better in the presence of other people

Tripplett's social facilitation study

• He told children to reel in a fishing rod as fast as they could

• Some were alone, some were competing against other children

He found that the children reeled faster when they were competing with other children than when they did it alone

Social Loafing

• When a person exerts less effort knowing that their individual performance will be hidden in the group product

Tug of war study

• Participants told they would pull on a rope as individuals and as part of a team

• Participants were blindfolded

• Participants led to believe they had teammates exerted less effort

Conformity

• When we change our behaviour or opinions to be in agreement with other people

• Solomon Asch's (1956) study of conformity

• Four lines, the answer is C but everybody else says A

• So you say A as well

75% of participants conformed and gave the ground answer at least once in the experiment

Compliance

• Bending to the requests of another person who has little or no authority over them

Compliance techniques

• Foot in the door: A person who complies with a small request is more likely to comply with a larger demand later (sign on the lawn experiment)

• Low balling: You get a person committed to act then, once they are committed, make the terms less desirable

• Door in the face: People are more likely to comply with a moderate request after they have first refused a much larger request

Obedience

• When you comply with the requests of someone in a position of authority

• The Milgram studies

Coercion

• Forced to change beliefs of behavior against your will

Brainwashing techniques

• Create a feeling of entrapment

• Introduce new beliefs

Offer friendship, sympathy, and promises of leniency

Group Cohesiveness

Refers to the extent to which groups members want to remain in the group

- Members of cohesive groups often stick together, and their behavior tends to be closely coordinated.

Group Structure

Consists of the network of roles, communication pathways, and power in a group.

- Some groups have more structure than others. For example, a sports team has a lot more structure than a friend group

Role Conflict

Trying to occupy two or more roles that make conflicting demands on behavior.

Social comparison

Making judgments about ourselves through comparison with others.

Attitude

Positive or negative perception of people, objects, or issues.

Open-ended interview

An interview in which persons are allowed to freely state their views.

Social status

The degree of prestige, admiration, and respect accorded to a member of a group.

Social power

The degree to which a group member can control, alter, or influence the behavior of another group member.

Social cognition

The process of thinking about ourselves and others in a social context.

Social Distance Scale

A rating of the degree to which a person would be willing to have contact with a member of another group.

Attitude Scale

A collection of attitudinal statements with which respondents indicate agreement or disagreement.

Reference Group

Any group that an individual uses as a standard for social comparison.

Social Interference

Tendency to perform more poorly when in the presence of others.

Mere Presence

The tendency for people to change their behavior just because of the presence of other people.

Group Sanctions

Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members.

Groupthink

Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members.

Persuasion

Rewards and punishments (such as approval or disapproval) administered by groups to enforce conformity among members.

Cult

A group that professes great devotion to some person and follows that person almost without question; cult members are typically victimized by their leaders in various ways.

Self-Assertion

A direct, honest expression of feelings and desires

Shock Experiment

Researchers told participants to do a memory test, with every wrong answer giving a shock. With half the participants they told them that they would get a painful shock, and the other half with mild shocks. With the people who expected to get painful shocks, they were more likely to want other people to sit with them

Factors impacting attraction

• Familiarity: We are attracted to people who are familiar

• Physical proximity: People we run into often

• Similarity: We prefer people who are similar to each other

• Physical attractiveness: We prefer people we find physically attractive

• Reciprocity: We prefer people who like us

Westgate Study

Students in residence were asked to name their three closest friends

Results (% close friends by neighbor type):